Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §29.2.77.pr

Repudiation of Both Inheritances and Presumed Rejection

Passage 4480 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Discusses whether a person who is both a testamentary and statutory heir can repudiate both inheritances at the same time, and explains the presumption of prior repudiation of the testament when one claims the statutory inheritance.

[POMPONIUS libro octauo ad Quintum Mucium. ] §29.2.77.prIllud dubitari potest, an, si, cum testamento heres institutus essem ab eo, qui etiamsi intestatus decessisset, legitima hereditas eius ad me pertineret, an simul utramque hereditatem repudiare possim, quoniam antequam ex testamento hereditatem repudiarim, legitima nondum ad me pertinet.
[POMPONIUS, from the eighth book On Quintus Mucius.] It can be doubted whether, if, when I had been appointed heir by testament by someone whose statutory inheritance would have belonged to me even if he had died intestate, whether I can repudiate both inheritances at the same time, since before I have repudiated the inheritance under the testament, the statutory inheritance does not yet belong to me.
uerum eodem momento intellegor et ex testamento et legitimam repudiare, sicuti, si legitimam uelim ad me pertinere, cum sciam testamento mihi relictam, uidebor ante repudiare testamentum et ita legitimam adquisisse.
But at the same moment I am understood to repudiate both the testamentary and the statutory inheritance, just as, if I should wish the statutory inheritance to belong to me when I know that it has been left to me by testament, I shall be deemed first to repudiate the testament and in this way to have acquired the statutory inheritance.

Notes

  1. §29.2.77.pran ... an — The particle an introducing the indirect question is repeated as an simul... due to the long intervening conditional clause (si, cum...) and its relative clause. Syntactically, both instances of an introduce a single indirect question: "whether ...".
  2. §29.2.77.prqui etiamsi intestatus decessisset, legitima hereditas eius ad me pertineret — Within the relative clause, the pluperfect subjunctive decessisset (contrary-to-fact condition in the past: "even if he had died intestate") is combined with the imperfect subjunctive pertineret (contrary-to-fact result in the present: "his statutory inheritance would belong to me"), forming a mixed conditional sentence within the clause.
  3. §29.2.77.printellegor ... repudiare — This is a personal construction of the passive verb intellegor with the infinitive repudiare (equivalent to the impersonal intellegitur me repudiare, "it is understood that I..."), meaning "I am understood to repudiate". The later phrase uidebor ante repudiare... shares the same structure with the future passive of uideri ("I shall be deemed/seem to...").

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §29.2.77.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:29.2.77.pr

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